WorldSpreads Reviewed

Generalities:

Demo Account: A $10,000 demo account where you can place up to 100 simulator trades is available.

Accounts: Three different online spreadbetting accounts (Limited Risk, Active and Platinum) available for clients to choose from offering varying levels of complexity. There are no zero spread markets on the Active account.

Minimum Deposit: No minimum deposit. Accounts are available in Sterling, US Dollars and Euro.

Financing Policy: +2.5% LIBOR if long, -2.5% LIBOR if short. Funding charge is applied on the full exposure including any margin deposits.

Miscellaneous Fees: WorldSpreads Platinum Accounts come with a minimum deposit of £5000 but make you eligible to deal the zero-spread markets. There is a £1 administration fee per trade which applies to all opening and closing positions when trading on WorldSpreads' zero spread markets on a Platinum account. This fee is only applicable to Platinum Accounts. So if you are trading on one of the 12 zero-spread markets in the Platinum account offer but have an Active account then you will not be charged the administration fee. Also, it is possible to have both an Active and Platinum account but this needs to be authorised by WorldSpreads' dealing desk prior to opening.

Stops: WorldSpreads offers all the usual stops plus free guaranteed stops.

Margin: Competitive margin requirements from 10% on individual shares.

Charting: Formerly quite limited but WorldSpreads have recently introduced some new graphs which display movements from just 1 tick to monthly and it is quite good. Java charts can display 9 different indicators along with price overlays and averages. Their new charts allows you to draw trendlines, channels and Fibonacci retracement levels on charts with time periods from tick to monthly. The platform now also supports functionality to add alerts to charts; for instance presets such as a moving average crossover making it easier to spot trading opportunities.

Education: If you open a demo account you will be offered a 'One to One' training session on financial spread betting. These training sessions usually last about an hour (or however long you wish) and may be conducted at WorldSpreads' central London office, over the telephone or online via WebEx. Also at WorldSpreads, Alpesh Patel gives a two-hour presentation on the benefits and workings of financial spread betting. This is normally held on a Wednesday evening at the WorldSpreads office.